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The Middle East Studies minor at Smith provides
students with the opportunity to complement their major with a concentration of courses
that treat the region in all its historical, political, social, and cultural complexity.
The geographical region broadly conceived stretches from north Africa to southwest
and central Asia.
Smith’s interactive language courses
in Chinese, Japanese and Korean enable students to develop practical language skills
at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Classes emphasize student participation,
with the goal of training students to acquire active use of the language as quickly
as possible.
The French studies department offers about
40 sections of French language, literature and culture. Linguistic skills are built
from elementary through advanced levels in grammar, phonetics and composition. French-speaking
students are welcome at Dawes House, home to 20 women, and there is a weekly French
lunch table.
German language courses are taught on all levels
from elementary to advanced. The emphasis throughout is on the relationship between
language and culture. German is used outside the classroom in activities sponsored
by the department and the German Club.
Studying Latin and Greek sharpens logical and
analytical skills, offers insight into cultures of the past and makes accessible
the literature of the ancient Mediterranean world. The Intercollegiate Center for
Classical Studies is a Smith-affiliated program that offers majors the opportunity
to study the ancient world on-site during a semester in Rome.
The Program in Jewish Studies fosters the interdisciplinary
study of Jewish civilization from ancient times until today. Students take courses
in the Program, as well as offerings from other departments in Jewish literature,
history, politics, religion and culture.
Italian language classes use contemporary
cultural materials and electronic resources to enable students to learn the Italian
language and culture simultaneously. Students can further hone their speaking skills
by participating in small conversation groups. A weekly lunch table is open to all
campus and community speakers of the language.
The department offers Russian language courses
at four levels. Russian majors typically enter Smith with no background in the language
or the national culture, yet by their junior year they qualify for study at a Russian
university. Advanced students can study (most often in a seminar format) Russian
literature in the original language.
Students pursuing careers in many fields will
find themselves radically more marketable as Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Through
the department’s course offerings, Smith students can explore the culture,
literature, and history of the more than 300 million Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking
people in the Iberian Peninsula, South and Central America, Africa and the United
States.
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